ABAW March Edition

Chronicling the ongoing attempts to read a book a week along with Sonar X9.

My list:

Firmin by Sam Savage

Savage finds an positive aesthetic in that which is usually despised and discarded, namely a rat, a hermit, a trashy neighborhood.  Firmin chronicles the life from birth to death of a bookstore rat in a doomed neighborhood in Boston.  I had a hard time getting into this book at first, though it is short and the characters are smart and well-written.  I’m grateful that I stuck with it though because there are several elements of the story that I really enjoyed.  The cultural allusions run thick.  My favorite thought from the book: people do not infest.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

I found this novel in a New York Times series about learning not to be afraid of math.  It is a quiet story about a quiet relationship.  The housekeeper tells the story of meeting and working for a man, a former mathematics professor, who, because of an injury many years ago, has only 80 minutes of memory.  Every day they must begin their working relationship anew.  The housekeeper comes to feel very affectionate toward the professor, and even though the professor can’t remember from one day to the next, he takes great joy in knowing the housekeeper’s son.  At times charming and heartbreaking, the story also includes clever and accessible explanations of several mathematical concepts important to the professor, as he teaches them to the housekeeper or her son.  Lovely, bittersweet book.  

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

This is a short, pocket book which digests (pun intended) many of the ideas Pollan discusses in his other work about food and the way we eat in our society.  One rule per page, simply stated, organized by his core motto: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  The first section details rules for determining what is food, as opposed to “edible foodlike substances.”  The middle section is rules for moderating consumption.  The final section helps to guide people toward a mostly plant-based diet, without absolutely shunning meat.  My favorite rules include: eat all the junk you want if you make it yourself, don’t eat it if your grandmother or great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it immediately as food, and don’t eat cereal that colors the milk. 

Push: A Novel by Sapphire

This has been one of the hardest books for me to read this year.  Like a poem, every word counts, every word has emotional impact.  Push is the story of Precious, a teenage girl who has been emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by her mother and father as long as she can remember.  At sixteen, she already has one child, and is expecting her second.  She is drowning in life, but a teacher throws her a lifeline and then teaches her how to build a boat.  The central metaphor is in the title, first seen as Precious recounts the birth of her first child, when a paramedic gently tells her what she has to do.  The story though, is more about Precious giving birth to herself, pushing herself, finding some self-determination in her world.  Some might wonder why anyone would want to write or read about a life so abused and debased, but Sapphire does something that is essential in literature.  That which is abstract and unquantified can be ignored.  When Sapphire writes Precious into being, she makes her life tangible, concrete, and quantifiable. Push is a hard reality made visible, a reality that is then more difficult to ignore.  Push is beautiful.  No, I haven’t seen the movie.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

These short stories of various lives in Pakistan are beautiful to read.  There is a vividness and bright aesthetic beauty to the grim world Mueenuddin portrays.  I wish I’d come to this collection at a different time though.  Quick on the heels of Push, I had difficulty reading stories which continued to illustrate how much it sucks to be a woman in the world.  Though I think the characters of the stories were well-wrought and the stories of byzantine business dealings were engaging, I couldn’t read more than a few before I had to put down the book for relief.  I want to return to these stories again later, when the timing is better.  

Sonar X9’s list:

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Dead Guy Spy by David Lubar (A sequel to My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie)

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis

The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy by Peter Earnest and Suzanne Harper

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (abandoned)

I think this book is another case of ill-timing.  I have no doubt that he will like this book one day, but now was not the right time.  

Currently Reading:

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

Yes. Yes. Yes. We will finish this one this week. I love reading Jacques out loud, but it does take a very long time to get through one of the Redwall-mice books this way.  I don’t want to comment prematurely, but I haven’t enjoyed this one as much as Redwall, with one exception.  I love the dialect of the moles, so having Dinny and his family popping up every few pages is delightful.  Our favorite phrase is one from the moles, declaring an overly talkative creature to be a “roight noisebag.”

Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard

I think it may be a little early for Conan, but he’s plowing through this one a few pages at a time between other books.  

Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger by Kevin Bolger

Surely Sir Fartsalot will take his place alongside the Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants very soon. 

Other notable books that have passed through the house lately:

Paulie Pastrami Achieves World Peace by James Proimos

This book is clever and funny and sweet.  I love Paulie’s parents, who don’t bat an eyelash when Paulie wants to achieve world peace before bedtime.  

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall

The illustrations in this picture book are lovely, round, cut paper illustrations, with hearts as the predominant shape.  I can’t imagine the time it took to create the illustrations, but the book might just inspire your kids to make their own pictures out of common shapes.  

Hoot by Carl Hiassen

We listened to this book (most of it) on our trek to New Mexico.  We look forward to finishing the story when we get through Mossflower. 

Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss

This is another clever, visually engaging picture book based on typefaces.  Anyone with a passion or even a passing interest in typography will dig this alphabet book.  Each page has a creature made entirely from the first letter of its name.  All of the typefaces are identified at the end of the book.  It’s a beautiful illustration of the rhetoric of font choice without being the least bit stuffy about it.  Many of the phrases feel quite lovely in the mouth as well. 

The Pigeon books by Mo Willems

What kid doesn’t love yelling “No!” at the increasingly absurd pleas of the Pigeon to do things he’s not supposed to do?  These picture books make reading a two-way street.  Check out Willems’ other great books as well.  

The Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne

I’ll be honest and tell you that I haven’t read any of these chapter books, but Sonar X5 has read 28 of them.  All of the ones that he’s been able to get his hands on at the library.  Osborne’s project to introduce history, geography, and literary canon into stories about a pair of time-traveling siblings is really rather awesome in it’s scope.  There are more than 40 books total now, and Osborne keeps writing.  

The Spiderwick Chronicles, including the novels, their continuations, and Care and Feeding of Sprites by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

If you know anyone who likes fairies, suggest these chapter books to them.  They  are fun and a bit edgy, with a touch of scary and dark around the edges of both the story and the beautiful illustrations.  The Sonars really love the Care and Feeding of Sprites companion book, which has inspired them to make up their own wee fantastic creatures. 

What we’re thinking of reading:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Clockwork by Philip Pullman